Obama leads McCain in statewide poll

LANSING — Democrat Barack Obama leads Republican John McCain by six percentage points in a new statewide poll of likely Michigan voters released Thursday by Quinnipiac University.

The poll found 48 percent saying they'd back Obama if the election were held today. Forty-two percent backed McCain. Obama was leading 46 percent to 38 percent among independents.

The poll of 1,572 voters was commissioned by the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. It coincided with similar polls for Colorado, Minnesota and Wisconsin -- all considered electoral battlegrounds.

The poll was conducted between June 17 and Tuesday and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

Messages seeking comment were left with spokeswomen for the McCain and Obama campaigns.

McCain's strong showing among white voters in Michigan and Colorado helped him keep Obama to a smaller lead than in Minnesota and Wisconsin, where Obama led by margins of 17 points and 13 points, respectively.

But that edge among white voters in Michigan may not be enough, said Peter Brown, assistant director of the university's Polling Institute in Hamden, Conn.

"Michigan is a blue-collar state with a large white, working-class vote, the kind of voters with whom Senator Obama had problems during the primaries," Brown said in a release. "But at this point, Senator McCain isn't doing nearly as well among that group as he needs in order to carry Michigan."

Fifty-four percent of Michigan voters have a favorable opinion of Obama, compared with 27 percent unfavorable opinion. For McCain, 49 percent have a favorable opinion, while 29 percent have an unfavorable opinion.